Monday, January 4, 2010

The Mirage Comics continuity timeline

Foreword:

As you may well know, a very healthy portion of the Ninja Turtles stories published by Mirage Studios were not written in anything approaching a coherent chronological order. The primary TMNT volumes were, of course, but even then, you have to weed out the non-canon “guest” issues from the purely canon “in-house” issues before you can get a reliable reading order. Then there’s the matter of both volumes of Tales of the TMNT, each telling stories that take place at different points across the Turtles’ timeline, having to be slotted in-between issues of the primary TMNT volumes. And lest we forget, there’s also a metric ton of back-up strips printed as bonus material in trade paperbacks, as guest content in other indie books and as episodes in various anthology publications, including those from Mirage.

The Mirage Comics Ninja Turtles continuity is anything but linear. However, that doesn’t keep some of us from trying our damnedest to make sense of the whole thing. In April of 2007, after completing my collection of all Mirage Turtles publications under the sun (or at least, so I thought at the time), I decided to take it upon myself to spread all the pieces of the puzzle out before me and assemble them into a competent, chronological timeline. It proved a daunting task and far beyond the means of a single mortal. So I made this thread over at The Technodrome forums and soon dozens of helpful Turtles fans came to my aid, pointing out inconsistencies in my timeline, offering recommendations and alerting me to any hyper-obscure pieces of Turtles fiction I was unaware of.

Later, Mirage freelancer Tristan Jones took my timeline and asked if it could be used for the then-upcoming “Mirage Universe Sourcebook” publication. After much fuss and hard work, we hammered out an even more thorough chronology to be used in an actual Mirage guidebook. Then Laird sold the Turtles to Viacom and the “Mirage Universe Sourcebook” got cancelled. Bummer.

Regardless of that, the timeline still stands three years later. And after all this time, it continues to be improved upon by helpful fans at The Technodrome forums who are still finding minute inconsistencies in story placement. The Timeline below is subject to change as new material is written or as new inconsistencies are discovered, so don’t feel like you’re losing your mind if issues move from place to place while you were busy blinking. The goal is to make this as complete and accurate as possible, and perfection is not something that can be achieved overnight (no, it takes three years and two dozen nerds for that).

Enjoy!

KEY

White: Officially verified Mirage canon from in-house creators, freelancers and guest contributors. Red: Guest stories published between TMNT (Vol. 1) #21 and #45 and other guest stories that are not officially verified or are considered "non-canon" despite no contradictions in content. Green: The Image series. †: Indicates back-up strip, short comic or anthology installment.

The Mirage chronology for the most part holds up fine, thanks to the episodic nature of much of the storytelling. However, there are continuity errors that cannot be rectified by even the cleverest of story placement. In such cases, those instances must simply be overlooked in absence of a better option. Additionally, many TMNT stories that could easily work with Mirage continuity, and indeed, have been published by Mirage, have been the work of outside “guest” creators, making their canonicity questionable due to Peter Laird’s opinions toward Mirage stories not written by in-house Mirage staffers. Additionally, some stories that were canon when they were written were later retconned out of continuity at Laird’s behest. These stories have been included for the sake of completion, but with proper notations indicating their canon-status. The following is a detailed account of these discrepancies and incongruities as well as rationalizations for various timeline placements.

*PETER LAIRD'S QUOTE ON CANONICITY: So just to clear up the facts, here is Peter Laird's personal quote on what counts from the letters page of TMNT (Vol. 4) #9: "The current Mirage TMNT comic, which we refer to as volume 4, is a continuation of what I call 'Mirage continuity' -- which is basically the issues of the original comic series that Kevin Eastman and I worked on, along with about a dozen other issues, the TALES OF THE TURTLES series, the short-lived color TMNT series, and some various short stories that appeared in different publications".

*THE EARLY YEARS: These stories take place before TMNT (Vol. 1) #1, dealing with various points in the Turtles’ childhoods. They’ve been arranged by ages given in the issues or just by “eyeballing” the size and intelligence levels of the Turtles. So far as discrepancies are concerned, there are a few that should be noted to prevent confusion. Karai is much, much older than the Turtles in this continuity, thus her origin story takes place first. “Loops” brings together four Leonardos from four different points in the character’s timeline. However, since the primary perspective is from the youngest Leonardo, the story is slotted into this era. The back-up strips printed in “Shell Shock” and other books could conceivably take place just about anywhere in the Turtles’ timeline, but have been placed here for lack of a better idea. They’re all mostly goofy and fun stories and fit well with the more carefree days of this era.

*LIVING WITH APRIL YEAR ONE: This era covers their first year living in April’s apartment as well as their space adventure with the Triceratons and the Utroms. It ends with the Michelangelo (microseries) #1 issue, as it is established as taking place during a different Christmas from the one seen in TMNT (Vol. 1) #10 (which is established as being their second Christmas with April). Many of the Raph/Casey adventures that lack definitive evidence for timeline placement have been grouped here to illustrate their time spent bonding as friends. Stories like “The Lesson” and “Terror by Transmat!” also lack definitive evidence for placement and have been grouped here for the sake of theme. Some stories, such as “Fifteen Years Later” and “D’Ants Fever” take place between pages of actual issues and as such have been placed below the issue in which their events transpire.

*LIVING WITH APRIL YEAR TWO: This era covers their second year living in April’s apartment. Only the first and third Usagi Yojimbo crossovers offer timeline placement evidence, showing the Turtles living in April’s apartment. The other Usagi crossovers were grouped here for sake of theme. Various horror-themed back-up strips with no concrete evidence for placements were grouped around the Halloween issue, “All Hallow’s Thieves”, for sake of theme.

*EXILE TO NORTHAMPTION: This era covers their banishment from New York at the hands of the resurrected Shredder. Most of these stories were specifically written to take place in this era with others simply being placed here due to location and theme. As TMNT #10 takes place on Christmas 1986 and TMNT #19 takes on Christmas 1988, the Exile spans a full two years in story-time. Issues #16 and #18 have been skipped as they were guest stories not written to work with the continuity of the series. The Tales (Vol. 1) stories that take place in this era have been placed primarily based on the seasonal settings.

*RETURN TO NEW YORK: This era covers the Turtles’ return to New York City following their exile and the subsequent defeat of the resurrected Shredder. This is where things start to get tricky. To keep the Turtles from constantly bouncing back and forth between Manhattan and Northampton, the stories taking place in those locales have been separated where applicable. Additionally, the story “Leatherhead” has been shuffled down the line to undo a rather infamous continuity error (at the end of that story, the Turtles give their sewer lair to Leatherhad, yet they are repeatedly shown living in their lair later with no Leatherhead in sight). Additionally, several short strips featuring the Turtles battling sloppy and pitiful groups of Foot Soldiers have been placed here, as established by “City at War”, the New York branch of the Foot became pathetic and disorganized following the death of the Shredder, despite their lame attempts to obtain vengeance on the Turtles.

*RETURN TO NORTHAMPTON: This era covers the Turtles’ return to Casey’s farm in Northampton and the adventures they encountered while staying there. Again, these stories were separated by location. As color-coded, a large number of these stories were written between TMNT (Vol. 1) #21 and #45, thus making their canon status questionable.

*CITY AT WAR: This era covers the massive “City at War” epic. It includes “Change of Power” and “Shades of Grey” as they were both written as prologues to the event. The Tales (Vol. 2) story, "Temps", takes place between TMNT #53 and #54, but features April back in New York before she fully decided to return following her father's funeral in #57. Due to the lack of snow on the ground and the Turtles' water tower base being intact (it was attacked in #56), the story cannot take place after #57. April was possibly just "visiting" New York at the time, if one must explain away the continuity glitch.

*VOLUME 2: This era covers the events of Mirage’s Volume 2 series as well as those written around them. At this point, stories are slotted into this era either by theme or solely by judgment of Shadow’s age. Following TMNT Vol. 1, her growth would play a major factor in determining how many years have passed between stories and thus where a story should be placed.

*THE GANG WARS: This era covers the events of the Gang Wars. Unfortunately, due to the Viacom buy-out and the cancellation of Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2), the Gang Wars arc never received a conclusion, leaving this era rather open ended.

*MIRAGE “VOLUME 3”: This era covers the stories retroactively written to fill the void between Mirage’s Volume 2 series and Mirage’s Volume 4 series. There was no actual Mirage Volume 3 (hence the quotations), as the official Volume 3 was published by Image and, as per Laird, that volume is no longer canon.

*IMAGE VOLUME 3: This era covers the events of Image’s TMNT series. When the Image series was originally written, it was the official continuation of the Mirage storyline, even covering several plot threads that Laird and Eastman had established in their previous volumes. The volume was canon until the publication of Mirage’s Volume 4 series. By that point, Laird had decided he did not approve of the direction Image’s Volume 3 had taken the series and chose to ignore it completely with his new volume, thus retconning it out of continuity. However, as it was canon once, it has been included here for posterity.

*PRELUDE TO VOLUME 4: This era covers the years taking place just before the beginning of Mirage Volume 4. As has been stated, the chronology of Mirage “Volume 3” is determined primarily by Shadow’s age. However, there is a wide gulf of years between those stories, as Shadow is written as either a little girl or a teenager/young adult. Her teenager/young adult stories must take place several years away from her “Volume 3” stories and almost directly before Volume 4. As such, they have been grouped with stories that pertain directly to the events of Volume 4 and have been dubbed a “prelude” to that series.

*VOLUME 4: This era covers the events of the Volume 4 series. Due to scheduling conflicts and, it seems, a lack of interest, issues of TMNT (Vol. 4) were first delayed and then put on an “indefinite hiatus” status by Peter Laird. The volume is currently incomplete with no indication that the hiatus will be lifted. Several Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) stories were written to elaborate upon or continue plot threads within this volume due to the series itself being postponed indefinitely. Additionally, issue #5 of the series featured a six month gap in the narrative to allow for the Utroms and other aliens to establish their presence on Earth and integrate with the masses. Stories placed here feature a heavy alien-on-Earth presence or major cooperation between the TMNT and the Utroms. The short, "This Mortal Shell", was a guest story specifically noted in the opening editorial to be "non-canon". However, the actual content of the story contradicts nothing in the series.

*POST VOLUME 4: This is a precarious era to place stories since, as of this writing, Volume 4 has not been concluded. However, these particular stories simply don't fit snugly anywhere during the Volume 4 storyline and aren't far enough in the future to qualify for being in that era, either. We'll just have to wait and see on these stories.

*THE ADVENTURES OF PROFESSOR OBLIGADO: This “era” simply contains all the Professor Obligado back-up stories. They do not interact with the TMNT in any fashion and could conceivably take place during the six month gap or after the events of Volume 4 or sometime long afterward. Due to a lack of interest, the storyline was never completed by Stephen Murphy.

*THE FUTURE: This era covers stories specifically written to take place in the vague and possible “future” of the Mirage TMNT. Tales (Vol. 2) #69 establishes that all these future stories are merely "potential" outcomes and may not all even be related to each other in the same timeline. So with that in mind, determining chronology for these stories is difficult. Some can be placed due to how old the Turtles appear, where they’re living, references to the events in other stories or, in at least Donatello’s case, how depressed they are. The “Gizmo and the Fugitoid” miniseries has been placed here since the Gizmo series by Michael Dooney takes place in Earth’s future. Additionally, the miniseries ends with a glimpse of an Earth-like street corner populated by humans and aliens, fitting in with what we know about Volume 4 and the Mirage future. For reference’s sake, the stories “Loops”, “A Christmas Carol” and "Dark Shadows" also feature looks into this future of the TMNT, but the primary narrative of these stories is set in the past or present, hence why they are not included in this era.

*The Volume 1 “guest era”: Between TMNT (Vol. 1) #21 and #45, the book was handed over to a series of guest creators with little to no regard for continuity. Stories like “Spaced Out” and “Soul’s Winter” are too bizarre (each in their own way) to possibly be part of the Mirage timeline, while others are simply too contradictory or silly. Several stories, however, were written to function with the Mirage continuity of the day. However, Peter Laird has stated that with the exception of “Dreams of Stone” and “Sons of the Silent Age”, all stories published during this period are of dubious canonical status, if not outright non-canon. This is partly due to creator ownership rights, as Mirage does not own any of the characters created for these stories by the guest artists. Oddly, this non-canonocity decision also includes “The River” trilogy, which is directly referenced in “Sons of the Silent Age”, a canon story. For the sake of posterity, all stories written during this period which are non-contradictory to the Mirage canon have been included, but with proper notation of canon status.

*"Turtle Soup": The "Turtle Soup" series was an anthology title containing short TMNT related stories by both in-house creators at Mirage and guest contributors. Many of the guest contributions were too "out there" to qualify for inclusion in the Mirage timeline, while others were either harmless or prologues to stories written during the TMNT (Vol. 1) "guest era". All stories capable of existing within this timeline have been included and color-coded where applicable.

*”Bodycount”: The “Bodycount” storyline, written by Kevin Eastman, was originally intended to be published by Mirage as “Casey Jones & Raphael”. The first issue was released, but when publishing of the TMNT series was shifted to Image, the series was retitled “Bodycount” and finished release under that publisher. Although it was primarily published by Image and boasts at least one Image-exclusive element (Casey’s star-spangled hockey mask), the fact that it was penned by a franchise co-founder and initially intended for publication under Mirage lends it credence for primary Mirage canon status.

*The Savage Dragon crossovers: Likewise the same can be said of the Savage Dragon crossover. Both two-part crossover arcs were co-published between Mirage and Image and before the publication of TMNT comics became strictly the duty of Image. The events of the first crossover are referenced in TMNT (Vol. 2) #3, while Radical’s depowering in the second crossover is referenced in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #41. This, as well as involvement from Mirage in-house staffer Michael Dooney, would appear to make these crossovers Mirage canon.

*The back-up strips: short TMNT comics have been published within anthology books, reprints of old material, trade paperback collections, other indie publications, role-playing game guidebooks and just about everywhere else under the sun. Some of them are important to the narrative of several storylines, while others are merely comedy relief filler. Most do not offer any evidence as to where they take place in the Turtles’ timeline due to their brief length. For the purposes of this timeline, those with evidence for placement have been slotted in where they belong. The remainder have been dropped in where they “feel” best, carry on a theme or simply can do no harm. Back-ups that were too silly or contradictory have not been included.

Yeah. It would be cool if whoever gains eventually gains the right to reprint TMNT comics would collect all the Mirage stuff in this order, and have each collected book contain one of the eras in your timeline (though some eras, particularly, volumes 3 and 4, would take at least 2-3 books to contain them in a good, affordable package). The only real problems I could see would be the issues of vol. 1 short stories (plus "Muscle and Faith" and the Casey Jones"Down by Downeast" by Rick Veitch and maybe a few other freelanced material I missed) that were gone by guest creators, as they contain characters owned by those particular guest creators (I could see Rick Vietch possibly giving permission to use his stories, but I can't find ANYTHING whatsoever on Lucidna creator Rick Arthur, so who knows if anyone else can?) and the cameo-heavy Shattered Image, Mars Attacks Image and Savage Dragon #41 (but those crossovers contributed virtually nothing to the TMNT's story, and Erik Larsen doesn't even really consider Shattered Image to be part of the Savage Dragon universe, so they could easily be skipped).

Oh, and would the TMNT's crossovers with Flaming Carrot (both in issues #25-27 of FC's Dark Horse-published comic, and later in a 4-part full color miniseries published by Mirage with story by FC creator Bob Burden and art by Jim Lawson) count, seeing as how you included Savage Dragon #41, which FC also appears in?

I hear that the Turtles were in a book called Phantasy Against Hunger and in issue one of Shadow of the Groundhog, but I don't know in what context. It might be in your best interest to find out.

There's also the second and third Last of the Viking Heroes Summer Specials, which I don't own and and have only seen a few scans of on Go Green Machine.com. It seems the Turtles's outfits are color coded like in the OT in these books, so they're probably not meant to be part of the Mirage canon, though for I know they maybe could with some fudging.

Thank you so much dude, you´ve got no idea of how much Im enjoying re-reading my turtles comics following your timeline (I´m such a geek hehe). It´s been years since I last saw them and if it weren´t for you they would be lost in an old box in my basement.

i just wanted to say thanks! this wood have taken me ages you see i have been colecting them all so i can put them all into a cbr and put it on pirate bay so people who are fans can download. i am almost done i am just getting the last ones so if anyone has wanted to collect every tmnt movie, comic, and tv show go to pirate bay in a fuew weeks it will be there. So thanks for putting this list up it made it all possable.

I must say fantastic work. I have been following your guide without missing an issue, and just finished TMNT vol 1 issue 7. What an amazing story it has been thus far. I was just wondering if you are still working on this and adding new releases as they appear.

"This is partly due to creator ownership rights, as Mirage does not own any of the characters created for these stories by the guest artists."

Actually outside of Rick Veitch's stuff and Rick Arthur's work with Lucindra (in which Arthur owns the new characters established in the stories but otherwise did as work-for-hire), the only guest written stories in this timeline which Mirage didn't own the characters from are "Apparition" and TMNT Vol. 1 #43: "Hall of Lost Legends" (and in the latter's case, A.C. Farley signed away his rights, but Paul Jenkins didn't).

I doubt I would ever have gotten into reading the original TMNT comics as much as I have if not for this page, which laid out a coherent style for doing so. It's not quite a "reading order" (I for one find it awkward to go from reading 1980s Vol. 1 stuff to Tales Vol. 2 stuff done 20 years later), but as a chronology it's indispensable and has helped me greatly in the formation of my own "personal" canon/reading order.

Hey Mark, amazing body of work.i've been collecting all of the mirage turtles and putting them into correct order according to this and i am missing just a few and its driving me nuts. i've googled the shit out of it and come up dry.i'm hoping to find scans of the following:Tales v2 04 - The GrapeTales Vol. 1 TPB 2007 - Spinal Tapped and Frontispieces and EpilogueTales Vol. 1 TPB 1989 - "untitled Nobody story"Casey Jones North by Downeast (#1-#2)

as you can imagine, having all but 6 out of over 300 stories is very frustrating for the ocd in me.i dont know where else to look as the wife wont let me buy them lol.Help me, Mark, you're my only hope!thank you for your time-Spencer Kapp jediofjah@hotmail.com

Great list, thanks!Though some of early stories are just flashbacks, while the issue itself takes place somewhere later. Would you be so kind to put those stories where they belong with notes to the certain point the flashbacks refer to?

The IDW series is a reboot, so it's a separate continuity from the Mirage series.

When Peter Laird sold the rights to the TMNT to Viacom, he retained the rights to continue producing Mirage Volume 4 issues until he feels like stopping (since he never finished the story). So far, I think he's only produced 1 issues since selling the rights.

Congratulations on accomplishing this list man. I tried putting one together like this ages ago and it took me a really long time too but I took the wrong approach and miserably failed. I would probably approach it in a completely different way if I tried to make one today but I lost the will to do it, lol. Mostly because of the time it had already consumed. I'm glad you were able to finish yours. I think I have a fair notion about how hard something like this can be and I just wanted to say: Awesome job man, my hat's off to you.

In Ask PL #15 at Peter Laird's TMNT blog, I asked him what the canonical significance of the ("non-canon") River trilogy is in the Mirage timeline, because their events are referenced in ("canon") Sons of the Silent Age. He replied that the River trilogy actually fits nicely in the Mirage timeline, but also clarified that this is only his own opinion. He seemed to imply that he's no longer the authority to ask about is or is not considered part of the official Mirage TMNT timeline. I honestly did not expect to be told this, since I'd been assuming he still decides Mirage's TMNT canon since the terms of the sale to Viacom still allow him to keep publishing TMNT comics. Our correspondence is in the Ask PL #15 thread. How would you say this affects the "canon" status of the River trilogy in your list?

I have been using your list, and I have to say it has helped immensely! I have adapted it to how I see fit, though, leaving out all the non-canon stuff (especially the vol. 1 guest era and Turtle Soup - I actually can't stand most of those), a lot of the cross overs and some back-up stories that bear no real relevance. I am now on volume 3, and so far I have to say, my favourite parts have been the canon issues at the start and end of vol. 1, and Tales of the TMNT vol. 1 and most of the Tales of the TMNT vol. 2 (at least, what I have read so far, given your continuity order). I have no regard for volumes 2 and 3 whatsoever, and can honestly see why it was cancelled after 23 issues of vol. 3 under Image.

Recently, I asked Peter Laird about how many underground lairs the turtles had. By your timeline, there would have to be at least three. However, the lair they live in after the events of "Return to New York" and before the events of "City at War" is never shown being discovered or abandoned, whereas there are events depicting the abandonment of the first lair (after the second issue) and discovery of the third lair (at the beginning of volume 2).

And I realized something else: What if the stories that take place in the second lair...actually take place after the events of volume 2, and there really were just two lairs instead of three? Mr. Laird genuinely didn't seem to know the answer, which makes me think that if there was a "second" of a presumed three lairs, then the events involving its discovery and abandonment may not even have been mapped out.

And so I'm thinking, what if there is something to this idea of more stories you assume take place before volume 2, actually taking place after it instead? Like, they might not have even met Leatherhead until after volume 2 was over. This may also imply that there weren't two separate Northampton periods as you suggest, but just one; they may have returned temporarily to New York during "Return to New York", but they may have simply continued living on the farm after the Shredder's death, not leaving until "City at War". But if this theory is plausible, then would it break anything else?